Cons:

I was once, believe it or not, a general of great renown. Armies of action figures clashed against the seemingly invincible Lego Empire, and epic battles tore across the playgrounds and backyards that comprised my small universe at the time. This promising military career came to a sudden halt once I discovered the Nintendo Entertainment System, a wonderful device that dished out comparable thrills without the hassle of actually having to use my own imagination. Still, something was missing. Missing, that is, until Commandos 2.

Commandos 2 lets gamers take command over eight highly skilled operatives as they make their way from one key event and location during World War II to another. Each of these commandos come equipped with certain skills and abilities, and every last inch of your progress will depend heavily on being able to use these unique characteristics to their utmost. From covert stealth operations to full-out conflicts, the pace and feel of Commandos 2 can shift quite substantially, a feat often achieved simply by mixing up the selection of commandos available during each mission. This makes for some challenging and nicely varied scenarios, not to mention an experience that'll keep you on your toes throughout.

It's important to note that Commandos 2 is an action game more in appearance than actual practice. While there are no color-coded boxes to carefully arrange or conveniently shaped recesses to plug items into, the core gameplay behind Men of Courage is -- dare I say -- closer to that of a puzzle game. Now, I don't want to give the impression that Commandos 2 somehow fails to take advantage of the WWII backdrop and all the explosions and violence you'd rightly expect, but make no mistake: Men of Courage is a thinking man's war game. Yes, you get to set off massive explosions, and yes, there are plenty of Nazis to club over the head. But failing to think things over beforehand will invariably land your commandos in some seriously hot (and likely piranha-infested) water.

The Price of War

In order to accommodate the long list of abilities and gadgets available to players, Commandos 2 features one of the most complicated and cumbersome control schemes ever to stumble its way onto a console. The control scheme actually works reasonably well once you manage to adapt, I must admit. But until then, many an hour will be spent wandering into minefields, falling off ladders, and accidentally climbing into rooms full of showering Nazis. All things considered, Pyro Studios has done a commendable job in adapting this nightmare of a control system for a console, but the Xbox controller proves a poor substitute in a game that was designed first and foremost to be played using a keyboard.

The game's camera is suspended above the action at an isometric angle, similar to what you'd find in Blizzard's Diablo series. Small indoor structures can be rotated to any angle you'd like, but the larger environments of Commandos 2 are conveyed through pre-rendered 2D graphics. In these cases, the camera can only be rotated 90 degrees at a time, limiting players to only four potential viewpoints. Finding the one angle that works is often the result of much fiddling, and it's not at all uncommon for key items or points of interest to end up hidden behind chunks of scenery. To the game's credit, however, the camera is able to zoom out substantially to allow for a bird's-eye view of the bustling Nazi encampments below. Neat!